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By 1968 The American Import Company (founded in 1894) had stopped advertising. I wonder if any of the high grade guns were sold at all? I used to see the shotguns quite often along with Japanese binocs and scopes marked Taico. The rifles were nice, but they probably didn't sell a bunch. The stocks on the lower grades were a moderate Monte Carlo type and had the same sling swivels/loops like a very early Vanguard.īack in 1967 the words "Made in Japan" was the same thing as saying trash. Barrel length was 25" which made it look even more like a Webbie. Does this sound familiar? The two upper grades were styled differently but either one cost $400. They were advertised with high grade California Walnut and Madrone with Ivory and exotic wood inlays. They were called the "Presentation" and "Medallion" grades. If you were flush with money you could buy one of the two higher grades. The "Custom" Model LMD 72 had a rosewood tip and grip cap with jewelled bolt and came in at $191.75. It had a black plastic buttplate and grip cap with a white line spacer. The "Golden Bear" Model FSD 43 had a semi-fancy walnut stock and cost $159.95. If you wanted a fancy rifle, Taico could handle that too. It wasn't common in those days to have a completely slick barrel, so the front sight kept the rifle from looking naked. I suppose you could have put one of the strange Sako rear sights on the receiver. There was a hooded front sight, but no rear sight was provided. It came with a California style stock and nice wood. The Golden Bear came only in the ever popular 30-06. The bolt shroud was open at the rear like the Howa 1500 of today (and unlike the Vanguard). The rifle also had Sako style grooves cut in the receiver for the Sako type rings. No plunger type ejector like the Vanguard of today. The extractor was a Sako copy and the ejector was a fixed type that fitted a slot cut through the left locking lug. It had the pointy bottom trigger guard like the Vanguard used to have. It looked quite a bit like a Sako (not surprisingly) or the old model Vanguard. The most interesting import sold by Taico was an unabashed copy of a Sako Finnbear (L61). All the guns had colorful names like Gray Eagle, or the Falcon, or something similar. The shotguns included the names of their makers in Taico advertising, like Dickson-Ugartechea. The kids at school wondered who it was that signed my glove and they finally decided that it was the famous Japanese baseball star L.M. Dear old Dad bought a ball glove for me in 1967 that was signed L.M. One of their brand names was Dickson, or L.M.
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The company was Taico, which stood for The American Import Company. They also sold Spanish and Italian shotguns. More about that later.īack about 1967 a company headquartered on Mission Street in San Francisco was importing various types of mostly Japanese sporting goods. Rather than produce an original design, they tooled up to produce a copy of a Finnish rifle which had a modified Mauser type action. Somewhere in the middle 1960's, the Howa company decided to build a sporting rifle. After World War II, there was of course no market (or manufacturing capability) for firearms. Bayonets had a sort of diamond type mark along with the Nagoya marking. The Howa manufactured rifles, perhaps the term subcontractor might be more appropriate, have the Nagoya fighting fish symbol along with a three sided design. The Imperial Japanese arsenal at Nagoya sent a team of engineers to supervise the manufacturing at Howa of the Type 99 rifle along with its bayonet. Then in World War II almost any company that could supply war materiel to the Japanese government did just that. In the beginning.no, not that beginning.the Howa company made textile machinery. The origins of the Vannie are often not well understood. The bulk of Weatherby's sales today is accounted for by the many Vanguard variations. Its two lug action and excellent barrel make for an affordable accurate rifle. Even though the incomparable Mark V is the flagship of the Weatherby lineup, many of us carry the Vanguard in the field.